A practical and philosophical study of survival skills by long distance ultralight backpacker, Carol Wellman. Outdoor skills demonstrated, true stories and resources in a down to earth presentation. A woman's approach to urban and wilderness survival.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Three Levels of Survival

I've always thought of survival in terms of personal life, survival in the forests, on an adventure or accident. Skills like making fires, finding food, protecting oneself against wild animals, heat exhaustion and freezing to death.

I watched The Edge, a movie with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin put out in 1997 deals with this type of survival. Its well done and worth watching. Our guys take a flight in Alaska wilderness. It crashes and the pilot dies. Anthony Hopkins plays the role of a billionaire with much book learning who then proceeds to put theory into practice. Navigation, fighting a massive grizzly bear, played by Bart, crossing rapids via log, and staying ahead of mental exhaustion are all well demonstrated.

Another kind of survival is dealt with in The Sum of All Fears. Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman play in this very excellent portrayal of a rouge nuclear bomb being found and sold to terrorists who send it to Baltimore and set it off in a ball stadium. The scenario unfolds with Russia and United States on the verge of Nuclear War.
This kind of survival deals with entire world wide physical destruction. Goods and services would be destroyed, nuclear fallout would kill every living thing eventually.

Another survival we face now is economic. With talk of United States defaulting on its debt, and all the politicians warning of dire consequences should the debt ceiling not be raised I personally am wondering just what a person is supposed to do. I've been buying food, basic supplies, got a little cash on hand, but what really might happen to the average American if D.C can't get this figured out?
Bottom line we should never have come to this point. The USA borrows 40 cents on every dollar, paying interest on these loans constitutes a huge waste of money. Now we're hearing about all the "entitlements" not being paid out.
One gentleman wrote in the AARP magazine, "I've been paying into social security for 49 years. Its my time to collect. It shouldn't be portrayed like a handout. Its money I've put into the system."
Now I know hindsight is 20/20. But surely this is like hurricane Katrina. Shoulda been able to see her coming and avoid such a catastrophe long before she hit.
If we weren't paying so much interest on money borrowed and wasted (how many billions never were accounted for in this last war in Iraq? Money no one knows where it was spent or whose pockets it lined?) the social security that keeps so many seniors afloat wouldn't need to be held as ransom.

Survivalists have to be on the look out for so many possible dangers. Having the ability to feed, clothe and house ourselves while staying healthy never seemed on so many minds before.

2 comments:

I'm like the fellow you wrote about, my wife and I have paid a small fortune into S.S. over the long years. And, since we lost so much of our retirement money in 2008, S.S. payments have loomed much larger in our planning now than they did then. The government is comprised of selfish, greedy individuals who don't care what happens to anyone "on the street" as long as they can preserve their own perks. I haven't heard them talking about doing away with their own gold plated health care, or fat salaries, or tax breaks, or retirement. President Obama says everyone must share the pain. I wonder if he means that Michele will quit ordering $462.00 lobster sandwiches at expensive hotels for brunch? It makes me ill to think about it. You wrote it all right, there's no sense in my parroting it back. But you are right, and here we all are. The tsunami is coming and those toads in D.C. are posturing and playing politics. Well, at least I won't starve up here, whatever else happens.

I am so with you on this, Arsenius. Americans used to have a short memory, and a short attention span. We need to look long and hard at this cronic rearrangement of our rights as Americans. Whatever suits them.

Yeah, I'd like to see congress, both houses, down sized by half. Half the staff, half the perks, half the wasted money on pet projects.Half of them could continue to do a half ass job just as well as all of them.

And, while we're at it, put the white house on a dam budget. All the touristing they are doing, money could be spent here. Michell could come order a Thick and Tastey and put some americans back to work!